India-Pakistan WC T20: Adelaide Oval head groundsman explains making of the pitch

Ahead of the 2024 T20 World Cup, Adelaide Oval head groundsman Damien Hough explained on Friday the making of the pitch in New York at Eisenhower Park that would be used for the India-Pakistan match in the extravagant ICC tournament.

While speaking to Channel 7, Hough said that the job is a bit tricky.

"It's a bit tricky, we basically built six of the 10 trays here in Adelaide. We made them modular. We're really proud of them. We've got a couple out of the back that will probably come out here [on Adelaide Oval] next year," Hough was quoted by ESPNcricinfo as saying.

He confirmed that the pitch in New York's Eisenhower Park is currently in the "grow-in phase".

"We put them in a shipping container and send them really wherever we want around the world. But they've gone over to Florida. And I've just come back from a month of work over there putting the trays together, putting the soil in, compacting them and putting the grass on. So we're in the grow-in phase," he said.

"We've got a business, a company over there called LandTek that are helping us with the grow-in phase. Then there's a couple more strategic trips throughout the next six months to do some work on them and then transport them from Florida all the way up to New York where we'll put them in and prepare them," he added.

Hough accepted that he had never done did process before and "there's a lot of firsts."

"It's a lot of work that's gone into it so far. But the real work starts around the start of May. It'll take two days to transport them up which is quite incredible. Never done that before. So there's a lot of firsts. And then there's getting them in the ground," he said.

While concluding, he added that the high-voltage match between India-Pakistan will also be played there and "which will be amazing."

"Four go into that venue, that pop-up stadium, 34,000-seat stadium. Eight games in 10 days. One of them is Pakistan and India which will be amazing. And then there's six that go into the warm-up venue with so many teams rotating through and so much training," he concluded.

T20 World Cup fixtures that will be hosted in New York: Sri Lanka vs South Africa (June 3), India vs Ireland (June 5), Canada vs Ireland (June 7), Netherlands vs South Africa (June 8), India vs Pakistan (June 9), South Africa vs Bangladesh (June 10), Pakistan vs Canada (June 11), USA vs India (June 12).